Brave Shot

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Square Enix Mobile comes out with both barrels blazing.

By Levi Buchanan

Brave Force We can remember the cacophony of voices. "Huzzah and Hosanna! Square Enix is finally in the mobile space. In no time, we'll be cleaving dragons and slurping Phoenix Downs with Final Fantasy!"

And then a few months passed. With little fanfare, Square wheeled out its first offering on Verizon Wireless. It was no Final Fantasy. Not even a Front Mission. It was a shooter called Brave Shot. Not exactly what gamers were clamoring for.

Features:

Top-down shooter

Upgradable weapons and bombs

Screen-filling bosses

Brave Shot is an old-style arcade shooter. Before you bemoan Square Enix Mobile for stepping outside the RPG genre, think back a few years. Every now and then, Square pops out of the comfort zone and releases a little something different. Sometimes the result is Type-S Emotion Driving. Sometimes it's Einhander, the side-scrolling blaster which turned out to be the best shooter on the PSone.

So, we know that Square certainly has the pedigree. But do they know how to sclae their epic talents down for today's breed of cellphones. After all, there's a monster difference between the PS2 and the Motorola T720.

Let's lay it out: Brave Shot is a good game. Not a great game -- nothing that will make your friends run out and upgrade their phones so they can play it. But it's a solid start from Square Enix Mobile, a sign of things to come. If they can aim low and hit the target, think what may happen if they decide to get grabby with the brass ring: Final Fantasy Mobile.

Brave Shot is an endless cavalcade of shooting. Wave after wave of enemy ships pour from the top of the screen, spitting bullets every which way, hoping one blasts your ship out of the cosmos. You must constantly return fire, as well as swiftly duck out of the way of incoming volleys. It's a simple formula -- but as well all know, simple formulas are often the most easy to botch.

Control is often an issue in cell shooters, as evidenced by our review of Raiden. You cannot shoot while moving, since handsets don't register more than one button input at a time. Like Raiden, Brave Shot attempts to rectify the problem by adding an auto-fire feature.

The auto-fire didn't help matters much in Raiden, as that shooter actually required serious pattern memorization and careful target selection. That's not the case in Brave Shot, which is nothing more than a fast-paced game of boom-boom. Enemies pop into the open with little thought. There is no need to time your shots and watch for distinct advancement patterns. Once the first enemy ship enters range, lay on the lasers and don't stop until the heavens are littered with space junk.

Between these haphazard waves of alien craft are mammoth boss vessels, the real stars of Brave Shot. There is nothing more rewarding in a shooter than taking down a screen-filling boss ship, and Brave Shot delivers plenty of these experiences. The first few boss encounters are easy, but later ones pretty much require that you have the tri-shot blaster upgrade and a fat supply of screen-gutting bombs.

Perhaps that's the problem with Brave Shot -- its difficulty is all over the map. Once you have acquired the tri-shot upgrade, the phalanx of alien ships between bosses is a cakewalk. Because the stream of shots is constant, no enemy ship can pass between your bullets. But should you get nicked by a bullet going into a boss battle, you're seven kinds of screwed.

Brave Shot is visually appealing, with bright colors and nicely-designed boss ships. They're big, bad, and foreboding -- impressive considering the lack of real estate on the screen. Square Enix also opted to jettison sound effects for a consistent, looping score. Problem is, the transition from the end of the loop tot he start is off. It goes from loud and full to quiet without any real transition.

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The Verdict

Brave Shot might not exactly be the first game you hoped to play by Square Enix Mobile, but don't let any disappointment sway you from downloading this playable shooter. It has the same control issues as Raiden, but the far simpler game design manages to prevent the control from capsizing the game play. Now, with this pleasant introduction out of the way, hopefully Square can deliver the moogle next.